Privacy advocates are concerned with the military-grade influx

Facial recognition software common in the military is finding its way to local police departments, and agencies across San Diego County are at the forefront of deploying the technology on their tablets and smartphones.

Law enforcement officials praise the program as effective for identifying criminals, but some civil libertarians see growing databases of such information as a threat to privacy.

The Tactical Identification System, coordinated by the San Diego Association of Governments, matches images taken by officers in the field with databases of about 348,000 San Diego County arrestees. The system itself has nearly 1.4 million booking photos because many people have multiple mug shots on record.

Commander David Myers with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said deputies have used the technology for the last six months to a year in various circumstances, including during traffic stops when a person cannot produce legitimate identification or any at all.

Useful and important tool for law enforcement
42% (232)

Unwarranted intrusion into privacy
40% (220)

Both
16% (90)

Neither
1% (5)

547 total votes.

He said the program, downloaded to a tablet or other device, is used when an officer thinks someone is lying about who they are.

“We can quickly verify whether they are telling the truth,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there who have lied to me and because nothing came up in the system. I had to let them go. Justice was not served.”

Ultimately, Myers said facial recognition has made the jobs for local law enforcement officers easier.

“The group that uses it a lot is our fugitive task force for individuals wanted on various high-profile violent felony warrants,” he said.

Officials said the technology also helps them identify injured people who are unconscious or can’t speak, and even helps identify the deceased for help finding next of kin.

Instant access

California law requires people detained by an officer to identify themselves truthfully, but they don’t always do so. The new technology may take the matter out of their hands, as shown recently by an officer on patrol in Chula Vista.

Police had just arrested a young woman, still in her pajamas, for possession of narcotics. Before taking her away, Officer Rob Halverson paused in the front yard, held a Samsung Galaxy tablet up to the woman’s face and snapped a photo.

Chula Vista police Officer Roman Granados uses a computer tablet equipped with facial recognition software to compare a photo of a person he took while on patrol with photos in a database. Once possible matches are found, Granados compares the ...
— Howard Lipin

Chula Vista police Officer Roman Granados uses a computer tablet equipped with facial recognition software to compare a photo of a person he took while on patrol with photos in a database. Once possible matches are found, Granados compares the ...
— Howard Lipin

Officer Rob Halverson, with the Chula Vista Police Department in California, uses a Samsung Galaxy tablet to identify a woman as part of a pilot program in San Diego County testing facial recognition software. Credit: Roque Hernandez/Univision
—

San Diego law enforcement agencies have used the facial recognition system since the beginning of this year, when 133 Galaxy tablets and smartphones were distributed to around the region, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Credit: Roque Hernandez/Univision
—

Halverson fiddled with the tablet with his index finger a few times, and – without needing to ask the woman’s name or check her identification – her mug shot from a previous arrest, address, criminal history and other personal information appeared on the screen.

Twenty-five local, state and federal law enforcement agencies – including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego State University – participate in the system with Chula Vista.

The project is coordinated by the San Diego Association of Governments, a coalition of cities and the county. It relies on a data-sharing program called the Automated Regional Justice Information System.

The system’s mug shots are pulled from the statewide Cal-Photo law enforcement database, which also has access to 32 million driver’s license photos. Also, the county is looking at using mug shots from statewide gang and parolee databases.